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In Golan Heights, Druze villagers are bracing for a Syria-Israel war

A fence in the village of Majdal Sham divides the Israeli portion of the Golan Heights (right) from the Syria-controlled portion on the left, May 30, 2013. (Sheera Frenkel / MCT)

By Sheera FrenkelMcClatchy Foreign Staff

Sun., June 16, 2013

“You don’t witness as many wars as we do without getting a sense when one is about to land on your doorstep.”

Maryam al-Din

78-year-old resident of Majdal Shams

MAJDAL SHAMS, GOLAN HEIGHTS—For weeks, shopkeeper Salah Abu Saleh has been having the same conversation again and again: when the war between Israel and Syria begins, what would he not tire of eating?

“People come in and they buy meat, cans of tomatoes and chickpeas — you know, the basics. They are thinking ahead to what they can feed their families if the war between Syria and Israel lasts months instead of weeks,” he said, standing in the small shop he runs in the centre of Majdal Shams. “We are being practical, but even in war you want to eat something you like.”

In this crowded hillside village that straddles Israel’s border with Syria, everyone seems certain that war is on the way. The village, which faces Syria to the northeast and Israel to the southwest, has watched with nervous anticipation as Israel’s military has heightened preparations along the border and Syrian tanks can be seen manoeuvring in the distance. Residents have cleaned out bomb shelters and hospitals have run emergency drills.

“You don’t witness as many wars as we do without getting a sense when one is about to land on your doorstep,” said Maryam al-Din, a 78-year-old resident of Majdal Shams. “Ask anyone in the village, anyone in the villages around, and they will tell you that if you put your ear to the ground, you will clearly hear that war is coming to this place.”

Israeli officials have said the sophisticated weapons system would be a “red line” for Israel, especially as they fear that Syria could transfer the missiles to militant groups across the region. Israel’s top generals have warned that they will act to make sure that dangerous weapons from Syria aren’t dispersed to militants, and Israel is widely believed to be behind three separate airstrikes that targeted weapons convoys on Syrian soil earlier this year.

In response, Syrian President Bashar Assad has threatened to “open a front on the Golan Heights.”

His words, and the equally ominous statements being made by Israeli officials, have only hastened preparations in Majdal Shams.

“We are in a very complicated situation, caught between very strong armies and countries. But for us it is simply that we are Syrian Druze and this land, as it is, should be in Syria,” said Fakher Safdi, a resident of Majdal Shams.

Majdal Shams fell into Israeli hands during the 1967 Six-Day War. A village of 23,000 Syrian Druze — the Druze are ethnically different from Arabs and follow a religion that borrows from a wide variety of philosophies — it looks more like a city in Syria than the Israeli towns and villages nearby.

While Druze who live farther south near the Sea of Galilee largely have embraced the state of Israel, serving in the Israeli army and learning Hebrew in schools, the Druze of the Golan Heights, including Majdal Shams, have always seen Syria as their traditional homeland.

In the streets, graffiti in support of the opposition has been scrawled on a wall just a few blocks from a shoe store where photos of Assad were proudly displayed. Residents said that now, as always, their allegiance is to Syria rather than to Israel, but they were unsure of what their country would look like in a year, or even in a month’s time.

“What happens in Syria we feel here,” Safdi said. “We all have family there — brothers, sisters, parents. We hear the news from them and our hearts are heavy for what is happening in our country. It is a very complicated position to be in, but all we can do is prepare and survive.”

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